IPA Bellwether Q4 2014: industry reaction

Matt White, UK MD, Quantcast

It’s hugely encouraging to see the continued growth in marketing budgets, particularly the fact that Internet marketing recorded the highest increase of all categories. It’s exciting that marketers continue to put their faith in digital and make use of the efficiencies and accountability that can be gained when compared to the more traditional channels.

As the industry continues to develop more complete and effective mobile solutions, I would expect to see this trend continue and digital budgets to grow further.

However, with wider financial uncertainty slowing down budget increases, it is important that, as an industry, we strive to provide increased support, insight and transparency to marketers – 2015 needs to be the year that we fix ongoing challenges surrounding viewability and attribution if we wish to continue seeing budget shifting from traditional offline channels to digital.

Darin Brown, CEO EMEA, POSSIBLE

It is no surprise that Internet spend remains the strongest performing category, with the latest Bellwether Report highlighting an upward revision to internet budgets in the last quarter. The shift towards a digitally-focused media landscape is reflective of the growing amount of time that consumers spend online.

With an ‘always-on’ culture, boosted by the rise of the third-screen, we are continuing to see more clients than ever taking up a digital-first approach. On top of this, the medium produces measurable, tangible results. After all, what is the point in running a campaign if you cannot measure its success? It has to work.

Howard Kingston, CMO and Co-founder at Adludio

2015 is a great year to be in the business as the growth of digital is allowing us to shape the solutions that will effectively reach consumers in online environments. The steady increase in marketing budgets puts us in a great position to prepare for the future and respond to some of the pressing challenges we are facing as an industry.

Smart companies will be looking to invest in trends and formats that tackle fraudulent views and eliminate wasted ad spend. They will also be looking for high-impact solutions that work across all devices and contextual environments. It’s the perfect time for the industry to catch up with the technology.

Matthew Hook, MD, Carat

A ninth quarter of successive growth in media spend is clearly great news for the creative industry and the economy as a whole, and relative caution in some categories of the economy where business models are under pressure does not detract from the overall positive picture.

As an industry it is incumbent on us to use this period of relative prosperity to drive innovation, creativity and accountability, particularly in digital channels, to support long-term sustainable growth.

Chris Daines, head of The Exchange, Mindshare UK

We are certainly witnessing the reality of the sentiment borne out in the report. The market in Q1 is seeing significant growth, particularly across TV with a double digit increase expected. In general the overall media market will grow by around 5-6% this year as the opportunities across all channels continue to grow.

In my opinion a large part of this is driven by the increasing ability we have to connect consumer behaviour and media consumption and understand the effectiveness of campaigns for advertisers.

Ben Mannheim, head of account management EU, Ensighten

In 2014 online ad spend saw growth in most areas with the budgets largely following consumer, who are spending increased amounts of time online. However, the reason this growth is slowing is because marketers are being smarter about where they spend their money.

Technology is giving us the ability to test and learn and think more about what constitutes a relevant and enjoyable experience for consumers. Initially, online advertising was a bit of a land grab with brands throwing money at digital without necessarily understanding what works, but we’re now in a position to understand the customer journey and play into it in smarter ways.

What we should see into 2015 is more brands operating in this way and consolidating their ad buys by investing in technology that helps deliver relevancy to their audience.

Nick Reid, UK managing director, TubeMogul

The 2014 Bellwether IPA report underscores several important trends that emerged last year that will continue to excite all marketers, digital or otherwise. We believe that as more advertisers follow the trend of bringing programmatic media management in house, the increased transparency and accountability they receive from self-serve software platforms will give them greater insight into how each of their marketing dollars is spent.

As the Internet of Things recently demonstrated at CES, there are more devices that are more connected than at any other time in history – a majority of which employ video – sight, sound, and motion – as an integral component. The companies that are able to innovate and take advantage of these new technological developments stand to benefit as much as the manufacturers themselves.

Martin Boddy, CEO, Jaywing

The latest Bellwether Report spells good news for the industry with the continued growth in marketing budgets showing that confidence has well and truly returned.

The increasing focus on making sure marketing spend delivers tangible results is something we are also seeing among our clients. Indeed, a rising number of brands now realise the value in their consumer data and are maximising its use in driving cost-efficient, targeted and measurable campaigns.

As we look forward to 2015, there are still economic uncertainties but at Jaywing, we expect to see more brands recognising the need to embrace data science as a fundamental role within marketing; a role that delivers not only a detailed understanding of where budgets should be spent but one that also drives the nature of communications.

Matt Fanshawe, Group COO and global brand director, Havas EHS

I am pleased to see that marketing budgets have seen a 6.1 per cent increase since the last Bellwether report. This highlights the growing confidence in the market, and the realisation that brands need to put customers first. This can only lead to increased activity, innovation and more ground-breaking campaigns.

With budgets being at their highest in eight years the industry continues to be a fertile ground for the best young talent. Whether that be from universities or through apprenticeships. The industry always needs an injection of new blood to stay relevant.

30.7 per cent of companies reported a more optimistic outlook on the market. In order for this optimism to remain and to aid further expansion, marketers will need to continue to demonstrate and deliver activity that drives value for brands and resonates powerfully for customers.

Mike Cavers, executive creative director, The GIG at DST

Today’s IPA Bellwether announcement makes for very positive reading. I’m pleased to see an increase in marketing budgets, even if this is tempered by a slower rate of growth than usual. No doubt this is due to trepidation around the state of the economy.

The biggest take out for me is the reported 30.7 per cent of companies citing an increase in optimism in the last three months. Viewing this with my creative hat on, a rise in optimism could easily lead to an upturn in creative output as budgets increase.

I expect to see more inspired creativity throughout the year.